集沙門不應拜俗等事 4.49

4.49

Next: The imperial edict states, 'We receive the heavenly norm to promote filial piety; we rely on the earthly principle to propagate ritual.' Recently we see that throughout all under heaven, filial piety is practiced together: while parents live, people exert their hearts to serve them with pleasant demeanor; when parents pass away, they cherish their departed traces. All of this is received from Your Majesty's way of supreme filial piety. Now suddenly to alter and discard the proper and pure regulations of the previous court and admire from afar the aberrant and unusual customs of the Jin and Song—although the monks and others are benighted, we privately consider that Your Majesty should not adopt this. We humbly wish that you reflect on past traces and return to the laws of Zhenguan; then the way of supreme filial piety will operate of itself without being enforced through indoctrination.